[Mars]

So I had an epiphany. The reason why I can't seem to get this task done every morning in the allotted time, to specification, is because it is literally impossible to do so.

Check it: Given time is four hours. Within that time, the worker must scan every 'hole' (empty spot) in the public inventory. The scanning officially typically takes 30 to 60 minutes.

That leaves, optimistically 210 minutes for the remaining task, to locate every item that has a listed quantity in stock, but is empty on the shelves - called 'research items.' There are an average of 70 research items every morning. That leaves 3 minutes per research item.

Assuming every research item is either in one of the slots immediately adjacent to them (average of 6.5 adjacent items) and it takes 15 seconds to search each adjacent slot, that's well over half the time to find the item, then assuming it takes ~ 30 to locate the item in 'midstock' storage, and another 30 seconds to get it down (only possible to do by going against OSHA rules and corporate policy, and climbing on shelves instead of using a ladder) that leaves 10 seconds for the worker to put the item neatly on its slot, and some items require more time to shelve.

This doesn't take into consideration items with unlisted alternate locations, customers who need help (opener is the only person on the floor until the last hour they have to do the task), phone customers, preparing the store for opening (which takes at least 5 minutes every day), and items that are not actually misplaced immediately adjacent to their proper locations (as is, in my experience, typically the case)

The store assumes 100% accuracy on this task, and the reports are used to form statistics about customer's buying habits (if items are sold off of the shelves) and shoplifting (if items cannot be accounted for) EDIT: Accuracy meaning, every item that actually exists in store is found.

Am I approaching this problem wrong, or is it really insane to actually expect them to be done at full accuracy in four hours?

EDIT: The assistant manager is constantly telling the two of us employees that do this task (retail-outs) that we need to speed up (so that we can finish freight within an hour) and the store manager is telling us that we need to be more accurate

[Sololop]

I had a similar thing when working at a movie theatre. I had to do theatre checks of all 12 cinemas and clean the lobby every 20 minutes. My checks would usually be late on any busy day, causing me to be scolded by my managers, due to the number of things required in a theatre check and the large, large cinemas the theatre I worked at had, plus the gargantuan lobby which on any bust friday has over 500 people in it at any given time.

Management don't know what they're talking about ever.

[JGZinv]

I would request the manager demonstrate the proper way to do the task, that should either A. show you how to improve, B. prove to them it's not possible in the time
allotted and (maybe) get them off your back a little.

[Mars]

I would request the manager demonstrate the proper way to do the task, that should either A. show you how to improve, B. prove to them it's not possible in the time
allotted and (maybe) get them off your back a little.

Well, the assistant managers basically encourage me to run through it as quickly as possible, but I'm answerable to the store manager, who insists it be done to specs. When my assistant managers run through it, he accepts their inventory adjustments without question, but gets quite annoyed when I have many adjustments at all.

All I really want to change is the perception that when we have an off day, it's ultimately my fault, as I need to go straight from "retail-outs" to working freight -which needs to be done within five hours of opening. If I don't switch it isn't worked after that, and we end up having to work it on top of our regular freight the next day.

[FlamingCobra]

So I had an epiphany. <snip>

I read all of that, and I concluded that business managers must not understand that humans are not perfect.

[Nuke]

you need to realize that the reason these people are managers is because they are mentally and physically incapable of doing any other job. its all blow and no go. the reason they get paid more is because they are loud and annoying and will always whine, cry and beg to their superiors for more money. they lack the mental clarity necessary to do well with less anyway and would likely find themselves dead in a ditch some day due to a heroin overdose. they would be the first to die in a zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, or other post-apocalyptic scenario.  id even go as far as classifying management skills as a mental illness. its not even leadership that they do, its tyranny. they dont care about the ones that actually do real work so long as their job is secure and they can weasel their ways into more money, they will be fine. and if one of his peers is doing even marginally better than him he will make the lives of his underlings miserable to close the gap. so this is a call to all the workers of the world to drag their bosses out into the woods and impale them upon large stakes (make vlad proud), and celebrate by splashing around in puddles of their blood (just use protection because most managers have aids).

of course ive never hesitated to prank the **** ourt of managers, bugs in their coffee, leaving laxitive laced baked goods near their offices, throwing them into box crushers, you know, the usual. im so glad i live off the government so i can screw these bastards back for my 5 years of hard labor they suckered out of me by raising their taxes slightly. i like the impalement idea better.

[FlamingCobra]

you need to realize that the reason these people are managers is because they are mentally and physically incapable of doing any other job. its all blow and no go. the reason they get paid more is because they are loud and annoying and will always whine, cry and beg to their superiors for more money. they lack the mental clarity necessary to do well with less anyway and would likely find themselves dead in a ditch some day due to a heroin overdose. they would be the first to die in a zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, or other post-apocalyptic scenario.  id even go as far as classifying management skills as a mental illness. its not even leadership that they do, its tyranny. they dont care about the ones that actually do real work so long as their job is secure and they can weasel their ways into more money, they will be fine. and if one of his peers is doing even marginally better than him he will make the lives of his underlings miserable to close the gap. so this is a call to all the workers of the world to drag their bosses out into the woods and impale them upon large stakes (make vlad proud), and celebrate by splashing around in puddles of their blood (just use protection because most managers have aids).

It is as if, all of a sudden, my entire conception of nuke as nothing more than a pothead has changed.

You, sir, are  a genius.

[Nuke]

haven't smoked dope in a couple years. of course as soon as my disability papers go through im moving to oakland california and getting a perscription for dope.

[Black Wolf]

I don't have anything to contribute here except this: I had a nap at work yesterday. This is not atypical. Nor is getting paid while at the pub (last Thursday being the most recent), at the beach (couple of months ago) or to do just six of nothing (last Monday).

My job is awesome.

As for your situation, it sounds like the job isn't exactly critical, if your assistant managers can breeze through it. It sounds to me more like a problem the manager has with you - maybe not you personally, maybe all junior employees. Regardless, I reckon you might need to cheat this one. Break all the rules and get it done as quickly as possible. All the rules except being nice to customers, that's critical.

The other option is to start complaining officially, but that rarely goes well. If you're going to complain, go via your assistant managers. Make sure that you state it correctly - set it up as a us vs. him type thing - you want to do it their way, but the manager is getting in the way of efficiency. They may be able to do something if you get them onside.

[FlamingCobra]

haven't smoked dope in a couple years. of course as soon as my disability papers go through im moving to oakland california and getting a perscription for dope.

Oh. I should have looked at the date on those posts when I started reading the first ten or so pages of W-H-I-Y-L. Sorry.

On a related note: "Doctor, my knee hurts!"
Doctor: *writes prescription for medical marijuana*

[achtung]

Maybe your manager is going for the "aim high and hope for the best" method of goal setting. The task truly is impossible, but constantly dangling the fruit in front of your face makes you put more effort into the work, making you more productive.

It's also possible your manager's just a worthless dickwad.

[Klaustrophobia]

from a store manager standpoint, accuracy would be much more important, because every inventory adjustment costs the store money when it's written off as stolen/lost and left hiding in whatever space it ended up.  from a sales manager standpoint, speed is more important so there aren't empty spaces on the shelves and you are spending more time with customers.  the only way to really solve this problem is put more people on it.  or do the restock after hours.

[Mars]

Yeah, I actually figured as much - the problem is I'm being ****ed three ways - sales, store, and corporate. We're over payroll and understaffed (economy win) and I'm wondering how I can stop being ****ed, or at least ****ed less.

[Klaustrophobia]

when i was working, the sales side was the quickest to **** you.  my attack was that helping customers was always the priority, and i did what i could on the stock/freight in the down time, doing it 'right'.  whatever i got done was just whatever got done.  if they were going to give me crap for it, i can justifiably point to not having time, and they can either live with it not 100% done, or put more people on it.  it's a lot easier to go to managers/corperate with "we don't have enough time/people to get this admin stuff done" than "we aren't helping all the customers because we're doing admin." 

[redsniper]

Yeah, I actually figured as much - the problem is I'm being ****ed three ways - sales, store, and corporate. We're over payroll and understaffed (economy win) and I'm wondering how I can stop being ****ed, or at least ****ed less.

You can't. Retail work is ****. Just try to strike a balance between speed, accuracy, etc. so that you minimize how much trouble you get in.

And yeah, like Klaus says, try to do a good job, prioritize the customers and so on.

[Nuke]

im of the opinion that no minimum wage job is worth this kind of abuse. so at best be sub par, be a dick to everyone, halfass everything, blow off whoever you can. if you get fired, oh well, there are many of ****ty jobs out there. and you could tap em for unemployment for months. dont like getting ****ed, **** back. they think that because they can take away your job that they have power over you. but if the job's only importance to you is a pay check, and if that pay check is barely enough to survive on, then **** it, your better off on unemployment/food stamps. who knows, they may like you and give you a management job.

[Bobboau]

I'm answerable to the store manager, who insists it be done to specs.

here is the key to your delema, do it slow and well.

[Mars]

So, when I finally got my manager to watch me do retail-outs today, it was decided that I A) listen way too well (he was hoping to reinforce the idea that I should do it PERFECTLY so that I'd do it adequately , he wasn't expecting me to actually strive for 100%) and B) actually completely rock at getting them done properly when I'm not agonizing over EVERY SINGLE ITEM.

I like this, because I actually do like my job, months of being 'sub-par' on this task was wearing on me.

[Sushi]

So, when I finally got my manager to watch me do retail-outs today, it was decided that I A) listen way too well (he was hoping to reinforce the idea that I should do it PERFECTLY so that I'd do it adequately , he wasn't expecting me to actually strive for 100%) and B) actually completely rock at getting them done properly when I'm not agonizing over EVERY SINGLE ITEM.

I like this, because I actually do like my job, months of being 'sub-par' on this task was wearing on me.

Glad your managers are cool enough to work through it with you and get everyone on the same happy page. Success!

[achtung]

So, when I finally got my manager to watch me do retail-outs today, it was decided that I A) listen way too well (he was hoping to reinforce the idea that I should do it PERFECTLY so that I'd do it adequately , he wasn't expecting me to actually strive for 100%) and B) actually completely rock at getting them done properly when I'm not agonizing over EVERY SINGLE ITEM.

I like this, because I actually do like my job, months of being 'sub-par' on this task was wearing on me.

I was sort of right!